Identification of Single Nucleotide Polymorphism in relation to semen quality in Holstein Friesian bulls

Abstract

A significant portion of bulls that pass the Breeding Soundness Evaluation often yield semen of poor quality, rendering it unsuitable for use in artificial breeding. However, the underlying reasons for this phenomenon remain poorly understood. To shed light on this issue, our study newlineemployed high-throughput RNA-seq analysis of spermatozoa to pinpoint single nucleotide newlinepolymorphisms (SNPs) within quantitative trait loci (QTL) regions in bulls producing semen of both good and poor quality. We identified a total of 24,755 and 49,653 SNPs, respectively, which were then mapped to the Cattle QTL database for semen quality traits. Within this pool, 1,260 unique SNPs were found in bulls producing good quality semen, while 2,494 unique SNPs were identified in those producing poor quality semen. Gene Ontology (GO) analysis of the filtered genes with significant variations between good and poor-quality semen highlighted enrichment in crucial pathways relevant to semen quality. newline